


A Different Set of Circumstances

by Azayta



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 02:09:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3833089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azayta/pseuds/Azayta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an AU, instead  of meeting and becoming friends with Harry and Ron, Hermione first befriends Draco Malfoy. The two look at Hogwarts differently because of their different lives. They both face challenges. Draco is forced to choose between the old world of blood-prejudice and the new world of divergence, and Hermione fears she will never truly be at home in the Wizarding world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Different Set of Circumstances

CHAPTER 1

 

It's hard being alone. Sometimes I like being alone. Sometimes it's nice. In books or on the Telly, people complain about siblings. They complain about how the younger ones always want to play with them, or the older ones want to beat them up. I'm an only child with two working parents. School is far too easy, so any homework I get I'm done with almost immediately. After that I'm left alone in a little three-bedroom house with a huge yard outside of London until mom or dad gets back home from work. Sometimes I go outside, sometimes I draw. Usually I read. I like reading. It's why I like being alone, Because I'm not really by myself when I read. I'm traveling middle earth, fighting Orks with Bilbo Baggins, or making witty remarks with Elizabeth Bennett. I'm laughing my way down the Mississippi River in America with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, or I'm trapped in Oz with Dorothy, furious at the wizard for breaking his promise. If you're not by yourself when you read, if there are Family and friends around you, then noises are made. Face it, people are loud. They ask questions like, "what are you reading?" Nothing, now that you've dragged me out of Narnia to ask me a stupid question. At one point, a cousin of mine searched me out by the edge of the forest that grows around my home. There's an apple tree that grows there. Low to the ground, perfect for climbing, and twisted like the arthritic fingers of a kind grandmother. The truck is thick. But around a third of the way through it erupts into branches, like quails bursting out of tall grass. The result is an unexpectedly comfortable nest in which to read. This was the fortress of solitude in which I had made my escape from the mass of aunts and uncles and grandparents which is the usual the result of an Easter dinner. After the first hour, the exclamations of "you've grown so tall." And, "you look so like your father." Became to much. I couldn't stand it anymore. I grabbed my book, The Secret Garden, and chose to brave the chilly sky and wet earth that are the hallmarks of early spring. When I was at the base of the tree I looked back at the house. It glowed with warmth in the cold fog that squat on the ground like a cloud that no longer had the strength to hold itself up. I had about 30 minutes before dinner started and I became missed. I hurried to make the most of it, climbing The receptive tree with a deftness that only comes from constant practice.  
I curled up beneath the dark gray branches that look almost black when compared to the dreary sky above me. Thankful for the first time that aunt Noris had decided to knit matching hat and gloves set for me and then insisted I try them on, I settled myself against the cold, made bearable by the gloves and the knowledge that I would not be disturbed, and dove deeply into the twisting words of my book that meet in intricate patterns of thought and picture in my mind. "Hermiiiiiiiiiiioneee." I tried desperately to re-bury myself in the story, but it wasn't any use. The individual who had found he out in my lonesomeness was my ENDEARING COUSIN Gary. "HermiiioneeeEEEEeee." He called again in a whiny tone. In a few weeks the tree would have been covered in lacy white blossoms, creating a safe haven from any searching glances and prying eyes. Unfortunately, at that time, I had no chance of remaining unobserved. "Oh HermiiiiiiiioneeeEEEEEeeeeeEEEEeeeee!!!!!!" It is amazingly how one human being has the ability to ruin happiness faster then any other animal. "What do you want Gary?" I demand, looking down from my perch to see a boy about a year older then me and quiet a bit bigger."Hullo Herm." He says, butchering my name. I regard him with marked dislike. "Normal human beings with the proper long capacity call me Hermione. You've already demonstrated that your long-windedness, so I will hold you to the same standard." He glanced toward the sound of my voice, started, and stared at me from moment, as if surprised to find me in a tree. Honestly, where did he think that was? There's nowhere else to hide unless you want to going to the woods. "Hermione is the stupidest name ever." He says, looking up at me. "What's it even mean?" "It's the name of the daughter of Helen of Troy," I answer the question, even though it was clearly rhetorical. "She was the most lovely woman in recorded history. It's also the name of a character in a Shakespearean comedy. Now, if you're done irritating me, I have something very important to do." I nestled deeper into the welcoming arms of my tree. Gary-a boy with brown, curly hair like mine but cut short so actually looked decent- grinned. "You think you're so smart." He said. "I know I'm smart." I reply. He kept grinning. "Since you're so smart then how come you ain't got any friends?" I put the book down. "I've a great many friends." I say, overlooking the lack of grammar in my surprise at the cruelty in the statement and not at all happy with the way the conversation was going. "No you don't." He grinned, his blue eyes sparkling with malice. "You don't have any friends. We live just down the road from each other, Herm, we even go to the same school. So if you're so smart and I'm so dumb, why is it that me and my friends are happy and you're always sad and on your own?" "Maybe I don't want friends. Maybe I always want to be alone." It wasn't technically a lie. I said maybe. In reality, the fact that even at my young age, normal childhood friendliness wasn't enough for me to be accepted into the cliques that are formed even at the lowest levels of public school was very hurtful. Having it mentioned by my cousin not only made the pain fresher, but added to it the embarrassment of knowing that my ostracized state had not gone unnoticed. Hurt and upset, I lashed out. "They Just don't like me because I'm smarter than them." I say desperately. I hated his smile. It grew until he reminded me of my least favorite character in my least favorite book, the Cheshire Cat. "You're not that smart." He said. "If you were smart, you know how to get straight A's without annoying everyone in class. You're not smart, or clever, or intelligent, or anything else you want to call it. You're just weird. You store up trivia and facts no one will ever care about. The only question left is; Is no one friends with you because you're weird, or are you weird because you don't have any friends? I think both, but that's just me." I jumped out of the tree. It had gone beyond childish teasing. This was hateful. "You." I cried. "You are.....a.......a.." It was the first time in my life that my words failed me. I just couldn't think of an epithet horrible enough to throw at the boy who had brought out my worst nightmares and said 'they're real'. I started chasing him. He laughed over his shoulder. "Oh yeah, you're real smart. Can't even think of a good comeback." I ran harder. I knew I couldn't possibly catch him, but I couldn't stay still any longer. The emotions inside me were impossible to control. I just needed and outlet. I opened my mouth to shout 'confound you', but my anger mangled the words into something different. It came out more like "Confundo!" As soon as the words left my mouth, something odd happened. Gary tripped over his own feet and then just sat there on the wet grass. I almost ran into him, but, as I wasn't very fast at the time, there wasn't too much momentum. Then I looked at him, slightly out of breath from the run, and said, "what is wrong with you?!?" He looked up at me and his eyebrows met over his nose, his confusion clear. "Is there something wrong with me?" I glared at him. "So Now you want to play dumb, huh. Well fine. I'm going inside, but you're welcome to sit out here and freeze. In fact, I Think you'd be doing everyone a favor." I turned my heel and stalked off, determined not to let him get to me. Behind me I heard him scrabble up from where he was sitting and I turned to watch him stumble towards me. "You're my cousin, right?" He asks when had caught up to me. I glanced up at him. "Yeeeessssss." I said in the most condescending way I could. He nodded, seemingly unfazed by the patronizing way in which I spoke. Then he had the gall to ask, "are you mad at me?" I stopped. It's a good thing he wasn't behind me because we would have collided. As it is was, he walked a few paces, realized I had stopped, and wheeled around to face me. I balled my fists "OF COURSE I'M MAD YOU IDIOT!!!!!" He looked down. "I'm sorry." He squeaked. He seemed startled by my outburst. "Why are you mad at me?" I glare at him. "Why do you think I'm mad?" I ask, clenching my teeth so I don't shout again. I want to keep my voice down so as not to scare him again. I didn't know why I cared, until I realized He looked so believably innocent that I was halfway convinced. I hated myself for falling for his act. Then I realized it wasn't an act. Something had made him so confused that he could barely remember his own name, much less his horrid remarks about my lack of social life. He was still looking at me, so I told him to forget about it. Then we head back to the house. Him wondering what he was doing at a house that wasn't his own, me wondering what had befuddled him so. Little did I know that the answer to that question was to change my life and put on the path that would lead me to my current, lonely position on a train headed to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


End file.
